Almost caught shoplifting

Hi, I'm 17 I live in New York and I was trying to steal from (store name removed). Basically what happened was that I put a thing of like 2 headbands in my pocket (it was around 6.50) and continued shopping. I was with 2 friends. The lady looked at me and said "can I help you find anything?" I said no and she said "well I just saw you put that in your pocket and security is on its way. Then I said "I wasn't going to steal it.." And put it back and we all booked it to my car and drove away. I didn't see any mall security and I didn't even see her call security but they probably have me on camera. I work in a diff store in that mall, and used to work in another store in that mall and they both told me when I was getting trained that we can not accuse people of stealing bc they can sue for slander. All we can do is ask if they need help with anything and LP has to deal with everything. There was no LP in that store. I also know that mall cops don't do **** in that mall haha. It's a very small 1 floor mall in a small town. They didn't get any of my info and the lady that worked there looked like a college student. At the store I work in people steal all the time and we have LP but still nothing really happens. I just want to make sure im safe? I know the stores in the mall don't talk to eachother. And I didn't actually steal. I know it was wrong and will never do it again I just wanna make sure im good

Source: Yahoo answers

Depending on the state yes you did steal. In addition many LP, Mall Cops and others know each other so you could be outed very easily and could be fired.